returning fire. are they getting back at the cranky comedian? >> "fox & friends" starts right now. welcome aboard, folks. brian, welcome back from new hampshire. good job making news up there. >> mitt romney and newt gingrich locking horns but saying they don't want to lock horns anymore, perhaps. thursday, they would have trouble not locking horns. >> newt gingrich said he's going to run a positive campaign. that's pretty much he would do, is compliment all the people up on the stage. he's clarified when he will attack and we'll bring that to you. >> he did attack yesterday. >> absolutely. there was a lot of mud throwing. >> headlines first and we start with a fox news alert. two army helicopters crashed during a training exercise leaving four soldiers dead. the accident happened last night at joint base lewis mccord near

tacoma in washington state. two of the people were hurt. names of the victims are not being released. senior commander at that base says there will be an investigation to find out exactly what went wrong. prosecutors in iran announcing they just indicted 15 people on charges of spying for the united states and israel. the nationalities of the suspects not known and iran is offering no details about their arrests. back in may, iran said it arrested 30 c.i.a. spies and provided no information to substantiate those arrests. basketball tryouts take a horrifying turn when two teenage boys are shot. it happened on the outdoor courts of a south texas middle school. one of the victims is in critical condition. police are questioning three deer hunters who were -- they were hunting near the school. investigators say it's still too early to tell whether the boys were targeted or if the shooting was accidental. christmas arriving early for one military mom. theresa caldwell's day is usually filled wit surprises

working in the lunchroom at st. stevens school. this is my hometown, i think. i didn't know that, this is in minnesota. but this surprise topped them all. >> if that's st. stevens in minnesota, there it is. caldwell was shocked when her son, army national guard sergeant showed up. mom had no idea her son was able to get a two week leave from duty in kuwait just in time for christmas. how wonderful. those are your headlines. >> that's very, very nice. >> two minutes after the top of the hour. it happened in new hampshire yesterday. newt gingrich scheduled to be there. mitt romney scheduled to be there. when newt gingrich came to the podium and keep in mind, too, newt gingrich comes to new hampshire, a guy that almost everybody expected would be a distant second if not third because new hampshire is really the place that mitt romney was a lock for but now that race is tightening within that state.

and this crowd must have been heartening for newt. >> no kidding. it was at the windham, new hampshire high school. 1,000 people. an overflow crowd, among other things, newt said you'll not see me bow to a saudi king. he got a standing ovation at one pointed because he said he was going to run a positive campaign. even though yesterday there was some mudslinging between newt and mitt romney as well. he said he would keep it nice and positive. but essentially there was a caveat. if challenged, he would have the right to respond, newt said. he said i'm not going to pick fights and run negative ads and he said he would tell his staff, you know, let's keep it positive, guys. >> even though yesterday it wasn't. >> that's been his mantra all along to keep it positive. it would be like during a debate if somebody called you out, you have a chance to sponrespond. that's the way it's supposed to work when you're in a debate. this is how it worked yesterday

when the governor called out mitt romney and he called out newt during the show. >> one of the things that people recognize in washington is people go there to serve the people and they stay there to serve themselves and contacts in washington, working for freddie mac, getting paid $1.6 million. >> that's where he was asking for the first time to you, brian, mitt romney was saying that newt gingrich should give back the $1.6 million that he earned from consulting for fannie and freddie. >> most expensive, highly paid historian in the history of the world. if he wasn't a lobbyist, if he wasn't a consultant, what was he? he should give the money back. newt gingrich who wants to stay positive was not positive here. listen. >> i love the way he and his consultants do these things. if governor romney would like to give back all the money he's earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years, that i would be glad to listen to him and i'll bet you $10, not $10,000 that he won't take the

offer. >> this is his first big mistake. that's a totally inaccurate to describe what he did at bane compared to him consulting at fannie and freddie. one has nothing to do with the other. i mean, you had mitt romney, his job and his company would go into companies that were failing. he would -- some say they would have to lose jobs in order to save the company and i imagine when you save a company, they would eventually add jobs. that's the matrix of capitalism. >> sometimes you are able to make the business work and sometimes people get low. >> my question about this is do you care about this tit for tat? do you care about the $1.6 million that newt earned from fannie and freddie. do you care that mitt romney had to lay off people when he worked at bane? do you care about that? or do you want to look forward for the issues that face our economy and our country right now? that is my question this morning. because i have a sneaking suspicion that voters are going

to get really tired of seeing this tit for at that time and that's why they stood up and gave newt a standing ovation when he called for a cease-fire last night. this only hurts republicans when they go against each other like this. if you're on the republican side of things, then you should be out to beat barack obama. >> president obama wouldn't have won if that was the problem because him and hillary were bitter against each other for seven months! >> absolutely and by bringing things up in the primary election that inoculates a candidate come general time. in the meantime, speaking -- newt just made a joke about $10,000, michael savage was not making a joke and he was talking about a lot of money. he said, he effectively offered newt gingrich a million dollars to drop out of the race because he is unelectable. he said set your ego aside, newt, take the money. don't run! he would pay $1 million, kind of reminiscent of dr. evil, isn't it? >> hold the world ransom for $1

million. >> well, don't you think we should maybe ask for more than a million dollars? >> this is what i'm talking about, though. if you're within the republican party to attack each other in this way, does that help the republican party if the mission is to beat barack obama? >> michael savage isn't a republican if you listen to his show. >> what is he? >> he's to the right of ron paul. i will say this. he went on to say in addition savage wrote that gingrich will come -- he'd rather have a republican than barack obama. he said gingrich will come off badly compared to obama during the presidential debates and he says he looks like nothing more than what he is, a fat, old white man. >> romney's spokesperson said regarding this particular challenge from mr. savage, tweeted "if newt doesn't take you up" michael savage" on your offer, it would be the first time he didn't do something for

$1 million." another little slam there. >> all right. so newt gingrich responded back about these people who have come out to criticize him saying he wasn't a good leader when he ran congress and said he basically got thrown off capitol hill. thrown off capitol hill. he says now that he is -- that he has matured as a grandfather, 68 years old. listen to this. >> and you sustain it and not pull a newt. the old bad newt is what people joke about. >> look, i think when i was younger, i was probably a little more inclined towards rapid response. and maybe a virtue of being 68 and being a grandfather, you know, you're a little more thoughtful and a little more disciplined. >> it's interesting, national review on line this morning, rich lowry has got an item that compares the old newt to the new newt. newt is saying i'm 68, i've matured. rich lowry writes he was 65 when he opposed tarp and then supported it and almost 68 when he denounced paul ryan's

medicare reform as right wing social engineering. so has he matured? well, that's what newt says. >> one person who has not matured is alec baldwin. he apparently had a problem on a flight, an american airlines flight when he refused to turn off his phone or device, whatever, you know how the flight attendants come through and i know it's so hard in this world of technology that we live to actually turn off the devices when they ask you to but apparently, he had a problem with it and got into that big twitter argument with american airlines. now, they do not want to air any of his shows, "30 rock" on american airlines. union that represents the flight attendants wants that show to be banned. >> well, yeah. they want that because they went to the bathroom and started kicking the walls and refused to shut it off and then he went to sit down and the flight attendants originally wanted him on a no fly list, prevented him from flying. boy, did he sound contrite? >> very important for me to come here tonight and on behalf of everyone at american airlines, issue an apology to mr. alec baldwin.

mr. baldwin is an american treasure. and i am ashamed at the way he was treated. i mean, what harm would it do to led him keep playing his game? not any game, mind you, but a word game for smart people. >> all right, so there he is appearing as an airline pilot apologizing on behalf of him. here's a union calling for the ban on "$30 rock" on american airlines fortunately the association of professional flight attendants association has -- let's see, flight attendants, that's right. i threw in one too many associations. has requested that american airlines remove the show from future flights. we fully support the flight attendants and the way they handled the situation. the crew responded as they have been thoroughly trained to do so by the f.a.a. as safety professionals on board the aircraft. they say, the flight attendants do, that they wouldn't mind if "30 rock" was reinstated if mr. baldwin actually apologized. >> they shouldn't worry about it. american airlines should stand on their feet right now and get

their company rocking and rolling one more time. but if you start banning "30 rock" what if seinfeld has a rant on the next comedy special he has against united? let's go -- >> just don't watch it. if you don't like it, don't watch it. >> from the beginning making sure that hollywood actors don't think they're better than everybody else. >> he got tossed off. he paid the price. >> coming up on the show, let them hit rock bottom. our next guest says welfare benefits have turned the united states into the home of the victim and she has the facts to prove it. >> if you're going to steal somebody's car, better make sure there's not a united states marine nearby because he will kick your butt! that story is straight ahead. semper fight. [ mujahid ] there was a little bit of trepidation,

not quite knowing what the next phase was going to be, you know, because you been, you know, this is what you had been doing. you know, working, working, working, working, working, working. and now you're talking about, well you know, i won't be, and i get the chance to spend more time with my wife and my kids. it's my world. that's my world. ♪

>> welcome back, everyone. 15 minutes after the top of the hour. president obama pushing his message of fair share when he appeared on "60 minutes." >> either we have a system in which the people who have benefited the most from this new economy. either they're doing a little bit more or they're not. i think they should. because -- and this is not because i'm interested in punishing the rich. i want everybody to be rich. that's great! it has to do with the fact that the less i'm asking you or me to do, the more i'm asking somebody who's in a much tougher position to sacrifice. >> our next guest says president obama's plan to make everyone rich is turning america into the land of the envious and home of the victims. star parker, author of uncle sam's plantation and the founder of urban renewal and education joins me to explain. good morning to you, star.

>> good morning. good to be with you. >> thank you. what do you mean by those comments? au >> well, there is a disdain for the wealthy and this president and when you think about the new economy that he's discussing, the reason that poor people or those that are low waged workers today are at risk and are suffering is because of these attacks on the wealthy. their portfolios fell apart and poor people are not poor because wealthy are wealthy. in fact, it is the wealthy in the country that provide the employment for those that have less. you know, i know first hand of what this president is discussing when he talks about class warfare and what it is he's trying to do to this country. i lived seven years in and out of the welfare state and it wasn't until after a christian conversion that i got control over my life, went to college, got a degree in business and went into business and once i was in business, that's when i found out about this disdain and how much liberals just hate the business that is conducted in this society, how much they hate

the free market system and capitalism. and what he is doing is dividing this nation today, pitting the wealthy against those who have less means and we will fall apart as a result. >> you know, it's interesting because you say that actually, something like raising the minimum wage ends up hurting the people who are on the poorer spectrum in america. what do you mean by that? >> well, absolutely does. in fact, that hasn't gotten little attention why the poor are hurting the way that they are today. why the small businesses are not employed. now, there are other factors, of course! but remember, it was nancy pelosi when she had control of the house that passed a bill that allowed for minimum wage to go up a couple of dollars and president obama signed into law shortly after he came to office. but when you have that type of increase against business trying to develop employment during the time that the economy is already collapsing with these small businesses, they are not going

to hire and what it has done is it's escalated unemployment especially in our hard hit communities. the black unemployment rate against our youth is approaching 50%. this is what an increase in the minimum wage has done to our harder hit communities. >> so you talk about unemployment in the african-american community. take a look at this poll. i know that you know this but african-americans, 15.5% against the national average of 8.6%. >> it is higher but let's keep in mind now that in 2007, the unemployment rate was also high in the black community. it was about 8%. so it has doubled the same way our society has doubled. the challenge for blacks in this country is that they live in pockets that liberals have controlled for a long time so there is aggressiveness. there's aggressive taxation with excess tax over most of cities. there's aggressiveness with liberal policies of environmental protections if you'll call them that and excessive regulations so most of

the employment in these harder hit communities come from these small businesses that there's this disdain out of this obama administration towards so we can't fix ourselves until we have serious discussions about the excessive taxation and excessive regulation against the business community. >> very interesting perspective this morning from star parker, the author of "uncle sam's plantation." thank you so much for joining us today. >> you're welcome. >> coming up on the show, since when are christmas kacarols against the law? a group of singers get tossed out of the post office since it's government property. is that fair and balanced? we'll report and you can decide. check out this picture, it says it all. can you believe it's been eight years since saddam hussein was dragged out of his rat hole? the colonel that helped capture him coming up next. [ male announcer ] cranberry juice? wake up!

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>> welcome back. quick headlines for you this morning. former m.f. global chief democrat jon corzine and two executives will testify again today that they don't know what happened to more than a billion dollars in customers money. that cash vanished when the brokerage firm collapsed. and verizon apologizing for sending a text message to thousands of customers in new jersey telling them to take shelter! turns out verizon forgot to say it was a test of the 911 system. oops! brian? >> eight years ago today, steve, without firing a single shot, u.s. forces finally captured one of the most feared dictators in the world.

>> december 13th at around 8:30 p.m., baghdad time, united states military forces captured saddam hussein alive. >> our next guest commanded a task force that was involved in the arrest of the iraqi leader. he led them there. joining us is the author of this re-released book "we got em" lieutenant colonel russell. >> thank you. good to be back. >> what do you remember about that day? who was the one man indispensable in getting us saddam because he's gone in april. we don't get him until december. >> right. the last public appearance of saddam in april as forces surrounded him had a guy protecting him and driving him out, that guy became key and he was the one that fingered saddam. >> there was a plan should baghdad fall for saddam to survive. what was that plan? >> he had a system of bodyguards and protection even when he was in power. he knew he couldn't keep u.s. military forces out so he

planned to have an insurgency and cause us to lose national will. we would leave. he would make a bid for power again. >> and his survival was key to around five families in his hometown. people who have known him since his childhood. they kept you at bay. >> they did. a lot of street fighting. what a lot of people don't realize is the hunt for saddam was a six month process and the raid that got him was eight years ago today. >> this guy when you got him, you realized you had somebody special. how did you get him to lead you to saddam? >> we had a series of raids. we had been looking for the brothers, there were 10 of them in the first two weeks of december, important information to his location came about. he was caught on december 12th, '24 hours later, we were going on the raid that got him. >> you got in the house where saddam is but he's in the ground. if he doesn't look to you and nod towards the ground, not to you but to one of your soldiers and nod towards the grounds, is there a chance you would have gone into that house and not

checked under that mat? >> well, the team that was at the hole led by a guy i'll call john, in fact, they had looked and still couldn't find him. had he not been brought along by john on the raid, he would not have been found. >> let's take a look at this picture. this is saddam coming out of the hole being grabbed by your translator, correct? >> he was john's translator. a guy named samir and i believe he lives in st. louis today. >> his family was driven out of iraq, came to america and they said we need you. it will be kind of good. i'll go back there and see if i can get the guy that destroyed my family. >> well, and it's a remarkable story. in fact, in the book, there's a lot of detail of all of the key players in the units that are involved in the remarkable story of how saddam got captured. >> and his words were -- >> he said i'm the duly elected president of iraq and i'm willing to negotiate. what was his response? >> you'll have to buy the book to get the whole story. >> he was dragged out of there and he was scared to death.

>> he was pretty defiant. he was resigned after a time. he was held for a few hours at the water palace and then flown by special operations aircraft to baghdad under air force escort. >> wow. and you have to feel great all these years later knowing that the world is rid of one of the most brutal murderers in modern history. >> we forget how terrible he was. and iraq has a very bright future today without him. >> and without you guys, doing what you did, rewriting history and giving the middle east a second shot and you can argue gave birth to the arab spring. >> well, it very well may have but i think iraq is going to be a leader in all of that. >> let's hope so. especially with al-malaki visiting yesterday. go get the book. it's right there called "we got em" and you actually did. and thanks for doing that and thanks for your service. >> thank you and thanks for having me on. >> all right, colonel. coming up straight ahead, they locked them up but they can't contain his charm. the prime suspect in natalee

holloway's death attracting some female attention. and one city boosting the minimum wage to an all time high. sound like a good idea? stuart varney never gets here on time. we always catch him walking in. the money has to come from somewhere, he says. but first, happy birthday to stuart varney's high school classmate, taylor swift. people love the surf & turf. you can't go wrong. [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's surf & turf. 3 grilled comnations all under $20. like our maine lobster with peercorn sirloin, or our new baconrapped shrimp with blue cheese sirin for $14.99. i'm john mazany and i sea food differently. my dis best absorbedlcium in small continuous amounts. for $14.99. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs.

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>> welcome back, everyone. take a look at the big board. you can see barbara walters' most fascinating people of 2011. she'll have her show coming up. on the screen, you have pippa middleton that bill had trouble knowing who she was. she's the sister of the princess, the duchess. he wants to know how you become famous from holding the back of a wedding dress which he kind of was on point, you know, he had a good segment about this last night. and then the kardashians which he really had a problem with. >> yep. plus simon cowell who has been on this program many times. katy perry, married to that crazy guy from great britain. derek jeter and donald trump. what do you think, folks? a couple of them are fascinating. but do they deserve to be

highlighted as the most fascinating people of the year? >> i'm sad because i think they're right. i'm sad that the kardashians are fascinating to the american people. i am sad that pippa -- what's her last name? pippa middleton is of a lot of interest for not doing anything. >> bill o'reilly had a problem with it and he took it directly to barbara walters on his program. >> pippa middleton, is that a hockey player? who is pippa middleton? >> you are so out of it! >> i am. >> amazing to me. >> who's that? >> you remember last year, kate middleton married prince william. >> pippa middleton, right? not even an american. >> so what? >> the only thing she's done in her life is held up her sister's dress. i think the kardashians represent all that's wrong with america. >> they wanted to come on this show tomorrow, billy, would you -- >> on "the factor"? >> yeah, i would take them. i would take them. but i'm not going to go ooh,

you're so fashion nath. you're a pinhead and this is why. i'd list all the reasons. >> actually, i loved this segment because i agreed 100% with what he said. i know we have the kardashian sisters on this show, too, he has a point! why are they famous? they don't have -- according to bill o'reilly, they don't have any talent. they're not singers, dancers, models even so they're famous for being famous. >> i could speak on this. i live my life without talent. >> america's got no tal en -- talent. >> thank you and i'm a witness. the kardashians to me exposed their life and unfurled it in a way like "dynasty", like family. remember family? the drama? what they do is pretend it's a reality show and they script some drama in each one of their lives along with the interaction because they are the first reality show that purely went to a syndicated scripted show before our eyes as we pretend it's real. do you follow that? >> absolutely. i think it's interesting, number one, that barbara walters called

bill o'reilly billy and number two, they will reveal who the most fascinating person of 2011 is at the conclusion of her special tomorrow night. of the people on that list over there, i got to think she's going to do donald trump. >> i think it's somebody that you don't see on the screen. >> really? >> yeah, it's somebody that's not already publicized. that's what i got out of it. >> how do you pick out of a kardashian? they're all -- >> which one? is it khloe, is it kourtney, is it kim? >> let's debate that as we read the headlines. >> i think it's bruce jenner. we begin with breaking news. take a look at the pictures from our news chopper high over new jersey. that was a tractor-trailer but flames are turning the cab of that truck into a burned out shell of metal right now. the fire on the southbound side of the new jersey turnpike in newark, no one hurt, spectacular scene, not affecting the commute just yet. luckily. >> occupy protests turning violent as demonstrators try to block the port of seattle.

police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd. they arrested a dozen people for holding up traffic at a second shipping terminal and take a look at this deal. it shows thousands of occupiers marching to the port of oakland. they stayed there until 3:00 a.m. to keep up the disruption. they have to get up for work tomorrow, how do they stay up that late? >> accused killer joran van der sloot attracting the attention of a not so secret admirer. meet the 55-year-old florida doctor who says she's van der sloot's guardian angel. >> worst ever! >> she reportedly foots the 24-year-old's legal bills and sends him lovely care packages. she's flown to peru twice to meet him in jail. she believes that van der sloot was framed although he allegedly admitted to murdering stephanie flores last year. he is also suspected in the disappearance of natalee

holloway, of course, famously in aruba. >> some of that, it looks like she was about to get hit by a car in that footage. >> a marine springs into action to nab a would be car thief. the sergeant says his training kicked in when he heard a man calling for help, that's when he tackled the suspect. the 48-year-old -- >> italian guy, get him! >> thank you, brian. he managed to hold him until police arrived. certainly heroic actions but not in this marine's mind. >> i know, you know, buddies who have essentially given their lives to, you know, do more heroic things than i have. >> the victim and his family are so grateful to him, they have invited him over for a special dinner. >> why not? >> no kidding. >> all right. there he is right there. >> let's take a look at the weather ahead. look at this, we have a big storm moving through the central and southern plains at this hour. goes back through california and it reaches up through the

mid-mississippi valley. for the most part, the eastern third of the united states, nice and dry on this very cold tuesday in the northern third, as you can see a lot of 20's and 30's up north and you have some 40's across much of the mid-mississippi valley and today's daytime highs are only going to get up to 35 in new york and cleveland and same for chicago. 60 for later today in raleigh. it will be 80 in tampa and 59 today in los angeles. all right. brian, how about some football? >> monday night football, steve, today is tuesday and the seattle seahawks were playing against the st. louis rams. i know what you're thinking, how did i ever nod off? i nodded when the kickoff happened! one thing about seattle, they are boisterous and they are loud. they have the loudest home fans in all of football and it pays off here in a blocked punt by michael robinson. takes it in for the score. 7-0 seahawks. let's go to the fourth quarter because the first three stuart varney was revealing found nothing and that's when the seahawks would put it away. lynch would drive his way for a

touchdown. yes, the former buffalo bill. his mom gives him skittles when he scores a touchdown. should the fans show respect by throwing them at him? tim tebow may be a surging football star but also making his mark on the english language. the global language monitoring says tebow-ing should be a word. this posedd -- pose by the broncos quarterback is known as tebowing, since then, it's spread in every word and he could be part of our vernacular. >> how cool is that? >> tebowing perhaps in the dictionary. >> danny wurfell will be here a little bit later. >> meanwhile, san francisco upped their minimum wage to a whopping $10.24 an hour. sounds like a good idea and a good deal for workers, right? stuart varney says -- >> probably not. this is not a reason to stand up and cheer.

$10.24 is the new minimum wage in the city of san francisco. it's almost $3 higher than the federal minimum wage. you have to add on an extra charge for health care special to san francisco. an extra 1 1/2% payroll tax special to san francisco. higher social security taxes because of the higher minimum wage and nine guaranteed fully paid sick days for every worker in san francisco. that adds up to a massive increase in labor costs. so it sounds great for the people who are getting this higher minimum wage put the flags out and cheer but you're not going to get anymore jobs and you're not going to have people higher and you're going to have people who are running a business, taking risks with their own money who now have the state dictating what they're going to pay -- >> final equation with all that addition is companies hire fewer -- >> it's a bad deal. the state should not be setting wages. when they do that, like in europe, they go bankrupt. don't do it.

>> how did it get so much higher in san francisco than the federal minimum wage? >> san francisco is a very progressive city, is it not? very much out there on the left. this is the kind of thing that they really want to do. $10.24. >> stuart, a guy from the san francisco living wage coalition says the higher wages helps workers' morale in a time of economic crisis and they feel they're able to tread water and get relief from the recession. >> it does. when the state mandates this kind of high wage for everybody, you get fewer jobs. you don't hire if you're going to pay that kind of money. >> so what you're saying is because i grew up in the financial district without talent, i wasn't on the stage. but what you're saying is there's only a finite amount of money. it depends on how you're going to divvy up whether you're going to raise taxes. if you want to give stuart varney more, then we'll have to let go of steve doocy and gretchen carlson because we're out of money. >> that assumes that the cake is a given size. what we want to do surely is to grow the cake so everybody gets a little bit more. you don't just reslice it. that's what obama wants to do. no, you grow the cake!

everybody's cake. the economy, that's what you want to do. >> like sea monkeys. >> what? >> growing -- yeah, sea monkeys. >> start from nothing. >> saying what i want to say, stuart. >> sea monkeys. i grew up with sea monkeys. >> small gets bigger like jify pop. >> i'm going to watch your show and hear more about sea monkeys at 9:20 a.m. on the fox news -- >> thank you, stu. >> sure. >> straight ahead, who doesn't like christmas carolers? can you say the post office? a group of people tossed for singing. their story coming up next. >> what if we eliminated tsa security at every airport in the country? judge napolitano said we'd actually be safer in the skies. >> his dream would come true. >> he's here to explain the patdown theory. his own. welcome idaho,

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and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. >> got a fox news alert for you. reports just in that pakistan's president is back in the hospital. this time suffering a mini stroke. last week, he had a minor heart attack. the government denies he is losing his grip on power in pakistan. and listen to this -- richard popkins' handgun was found by security in his carry-on at atlanta hartsfield airport. upon finding the gun, it suddenly fired grazing a police officer's face. he is charged with possession of an unauthorized weapon and he says he had no intention. things happen. gretch. brian, over to you and the judge. >> after an elderly woman claims she was strip searched during a tsa patdown, new york

senator chuck schumer calling now for the creation of a passenger advocate program to assist in complaints against the tsa, another government employee there, brian, at the airport. >> and another government funded operation. fox news senior judicial analyst and the host of "freedom watch" judge andrew napolitano joins us. i know you're anti-patdown. the tsa has aggravated you a lot. do we need another agency? >> no, i don't think we need another series of bureaucrats out there. who has more of an incentive to keep flights safe than the airlines? the airlines are the ones who would lose a tremendous amount of money if something happens to a flight. remember the underwear bomber? the bottom line is nobody was harmed. can anybody saw for the aggravation and fear that the people on that flight went through. no, because you can't sue the tsa for that but if the airlines are responsible for that, you can sue the airlines when there is a breach of security and you are put in fear of your life

even though not ultimately harmed. bottom line -- the airlines have the greatest incentive to keep people safe. >> but they don't have the cash. the devil's advocate argument to that is it's too expensive to airlines who are already not making a profit to have to provide all the security and be sued potentially. >> talk about you or the devil in the argument. go ahead. >> people would not go on airlines that didn't keep you safe and they would go out of business. if they don't have the cash to keep you safe as well as to fly, then they shouldn't be in the business. >> i'm getting the finger. >> sorry. i like it. the other day i was flying from san francisco back to new york. i'm talking to these tsa agents. they're happy. they're intelligent. they're charming. they're enjoying their work. they're putting us through and i said you guys, do you work for cousin janet? my reference to janet napolitano. judge, we are not tsa agents. we are a private company wearing tsa uniforms. we are auditioning for the job. that's the way people should be treated.

get them on the plane safely but treat them with respect. look at what the tsa did to mrs. zimmerman, 87 years old in a wheelchair with a bag, they can't be sued for what they did to her. >> let's read along together at home. senator schumer said, he says while the safety and security of our flights must be a top priority, we need to make sure that flying does not become a fear inducing, degrading and potentially humiliating experience. you agree with the senator? >> i agree with the senator's sentiment but i disagree that another level of bureaucracy will address the issue. >> we'll be watching your show. thanks so much. >> thank you for having me. there's that finger! >> it's sacred ground and it was a sacred day but these world war ii veterans were told you're not welcome here by the producers of "hawaii 5-0"? what? >> signed, sealed and delivered and right out of the post office. why were christmas carolers tossed on the street? that story is next.

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>> welcome back. a group of carolers in maryland are getting scrooged. they just wanted to spread christmas cheer but instead were thrown out of a post office in silver spring, maryland. the reason -- no singing on government property. j.p. duffy is at the family research council. he was in the line at the aspen hill shopping center post office and witnessed it with your wife and kids. first of all, why did you take your wife and kids, subject them to the post office on a saturday? >> well, hello, steve and a merry christmas to you. >> thank you.

>> we were just there like many other people, it was a long line and i was there with my wife and 2-year-old and i'll tell you, we were -- we were busy preparing our packages when my 2-year-old tugged on my sleeve and said daddy, daddy, look and she had the brightest smile on her face as three christmas carolers walked into the post office and they looked like they had just stepped off of the theater set of charles dickens and they started to break out in song. and out of the corner of my eye, i saw this scowling angry postal manager rush past me, get in their face and say what do you think you're doing? you're violating our solicitation policy, you need on get out of there right now! there was stunned silence. everybody was just frozen and all of a sudden in unison, everyone in line began booing the postal manager. but that wasn't enough for him. he only got more angry and shamed them until they left and let me tell you, i went up to him and i said will you file a complaint of some kind? i can help with this. they said it won't do any good. he has an agenda. we're going to go where we're

welcome and they walked out sadly and everyone in there including some of the other employees were outraged by it. >> the thing about it is that apparently carolers have gone into this post office and done the singing for years. there's never, ever been a problem. here's what the post office said defending the manager's decision. public assembly and public address except when conducted or sponsored by the postal service are prohibited in lobbies and other interior areas open to the public. we have rules and regulations governing conduct on postal property. only postal business. what's the post office trying to do here, j.p.? >> well, you just do a google search and you can find many examples in past christmases of christmas carolers going into post offices. >> sure, right. >> i don't know exactly what they're thinking, why they told your fox reporter todd sterns yesterday there is in fact a national ban on christmas carolling and i think that's ridiculous. we see this trend -- recent trend of a government crackdown

on religious speech and i think this is more of the same of what we're seeing. but i think most people are like these carolers, they just back down and say you know what? we give up, we're not going to pursue it. i think now is the time to say enough is enough. we're not going to take it anymore and the post office needs to reverse this ban and i'll tell you, they need to send a return to sender is exactly what needs to happen here. >> yeah, you know, j.p., it's too bad they weren't from occupy wall street. they probably would have said come on in, let me get you a pillow and spend the night. instead they're singing christmas carols and get out. >> i've told a lot of our friends and family, you know what? we'll give you christmas cards this year but don't expect to receive them from the u.s. postal office. >> well put. j.p. duffy, thank you very much. >> thank you, steve. >> all right, what do you think about that? e-mail us. meanwhile, the future of states' rights in jeopardy. the high court is about to decide who is allowed to enforce

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>> good morning, everyone. hope you're going to have a great tuesday. it's december 13, 2011. i'm gretchen carlson. thanks for sharing your time. newt gingrich stealing mitt romney's spot on the top right now. what does romney have to say about that? working to explain what sets them apart. >> they should have been treated like heroes. these world war ii vets say they were treated like zeros despite it being pearl harbor day and they say the producers of "hawaii 5-0" are to blame. you'll hear that story. >> plus he's making believers out of broncos fans. but not everyone is behind the nfl's most popular q.b. former nfl player and fellow gator danny weurfell gives his take on the media circus

surrounding tim tebow. "fox & friends" hour two for a tuesday starts right now. >> hi, this is billy ray cyrus and you're watching the hottest news show in the world. thanks for waking up with "fox & friends." >> we feel new. >> hottest in the world! thank you very much. >> we'll take it on a cold tuesday morning here in new york. let's talk a little politics this morning and, of course, you have the two men at the top of the republican heap which is newt gingrich, i almost said newt romney as michelle bachmann calls them. newt gingrich and mitt romney. romney admitting that gingrich is at the top but he says hey, there are tons of differences between the two of us. >> i think speaker gingrich made some very difficult to understand comments about the paul ryan plan. paul ryan and virtually every congressman in washington supported a plan that preserves medicare and cuts back government. i supported that. i said look, we're on the same page. my plan is a little different

but we're on the same page and i applauded his action. speaker gingrich said it was right wing social engineering. i think it was a very strange position to take and that's probably the greatest difference on policy i've seen on the stage since this campaign began. >> he's the frontrunner and the guy that they've got to catch and he believes that newt gingrich will get himself in trouble. we talked for another 15 minutes afterwards. >> in what way? >> because he feels as though a little bit an example would be what he said about bankrupting companies, maybe you should give that money back. he feels as though some of those answers, for example, the child labor laws, he has a problem with the way the president wants -- excuse me, newt gingrich wants the president to make these kids in the inner cities get jobs in schools and have janitorial services. he thinks that's way off base. >> listen, newt gingrich got good news and bad news yesterday. good news is gary busey endorsed him at a christmas party, hollywood actor even though gary says i've never met him and i know what he stands for. bad news is glenn beck does not

like newt. and according to drudge, he would consider ron paul as a third party candidate over newt even though glenn beck does not like ron paul's foreign policy at all. >> i don't think glenn beck likes mitt romney either. he likes michelle bachmann and rick santorum the best. >> and i think he likes both you more than me. i don't know if that's also in the article. >> i'm out of the popularity contest. let's move on to this. a feisty night on the house floor as republicans and democrats fight out whether or not to extend the payroll tax cut. kelly wright live now in washington with the very latest for us. good morning to you, kelly. >> good morning to you all. you know, it's been said that politics can be dirty or even messy but listen, the debate over the payroll tax extension in congress appears to be getting downright ugly. frustrations are evident and tempers appear to be flaring over members of the house ways and means committee. very heated exchange taking place between the republican chairman dave camp and ranking

democrat of the panel. >> we can argue -- i'll take back my time. don't argue -- let's not argue about the policies because i think you're wrong. >> it's a fact. >> focus on the -- >> promised 6% unemployment. >> folk us on the unemployed in the state of michigan. >> i am focused on the unemployed. if we had not passed the stimulus bill, we would have been better off. >> that's a portion of it. democrats say republicans have resorted to political extortion by adding a christmas tree of other projects that have nothing to do with extending the payroll tax cut or even unemployment insurance. on the other hand, you have republicans who say they have put together a bill they believe is fair to all. the plan includes a scaled down unemployment insurance program. a two-year extension of the fix for medicare and moving forward in allowing the construction of the keystone pipeline. >> here's a bill that contains top priorities from both sides. let's take it up and pass it without anymore theatrics.

let's pass this job creating bill and give americans the certainty and the jobs they deserve. >> well, democrats in the house and senate are not happy with the republican plan because it does not include any extra taxes on millionaires. and beyond the war of words that we've just seen, work has to be done quickly. congress must pass legislation funding the government beyond friday night to keep the government running plus renew the payroll tax cut and extend unemployment benefits by december 31st. sum it all up, representative hastings, a democrat from florida says congress is suffering from "a bad case of deadlineitis." steve, gretchen, brian? >> yep, we've seen it before. thanks, kelly. some other headlines for you now. start with the fox news alert. two army helicopters crashed during the training exercise that left four soldiers dead. the accident happened last night at joint base lewis mccord near tacoma, washington. two other people were hurt and the names of the victims are not being released right now.

the senior commander at the base says there will be a thorough investigation to find out what went wrong. another developing story for you this morning. prosecutors in iran announcing they've just indicted 15 people on charges of spying for the united states and israel. the nationalities of the suspects not known and iran is offering no details about their arrests. back in may, iran said it arrested 30 c.i.a. spies but provided no information to substantiate the arrest. hazing already a concern at florida a&m after the death of a drum major. now, three band majors have been arrested for another alleged hazing there. police say the freshman was beaten so badly with a fist and metal ruler, one of her thighs was broken. three students between the ages of 19 and 23 have been charged with hazing and battery. the alleged beating came three weeks before robert champions was killed during a band trip to orlando. imagine winning $58 million only to be told sorry, the machine made a mistake. well, that's what happened to this guy. the 26-year-old was playing the

slot machines at a casino in austria. he hit the jackpot! the bells, the alarms, they were all ringing, signalling the win. but casino managers noticed the slot machine only showed four out of five matches. his compensation, a free meal. he now plans to sue the casino. those are your headlines. you got to wonder when that happens, you know, should they get the money? should they not? did they really win? >> it's tough! i'm not part of the casino culture, i don't know for sure. >> ok, perry. >> thank you. crew members of the cbs action remake "hawaii 5-0" are at the center for controversy this morning amidst reports they disrespected veterans at the national memorial cemetery of the pacific on pearl harbor day and joining us right now on the phone is koa denver reporter steffan tubbs that first highlighted this story. >> this happened on friday, the 9th.

it happened two days after pearl harbor day but nonetheless, the veterans certainly felt disrespected. >> so you were given a tour to these 23 world war ii pearl harbor survivors, average age 91 and you feel they were completely disrespected by "hawaii 5-0" production people because they had rented a portion of the cemetery. >> right. they had, steve, they had the area where they were filming the scene for the show. we were about 200 yards away. our ceremony went on. and the national anthem and "taps" and a couple of speeches. now, i can't say every crew member disrespected them but i can tell you that there was a lot of movement back and forth and then there have been allegations that i'm making, you know, some of this up, that i'm making this too big of a deal. well, i know first hand that these veterans felt disrespected. at one point, we were hushed and rushed through a rose laying ceremony on some of the graves. there was a production member with a backpack and an ear piece who basically walked through all of us as we were doing this

somber, very somber ceremony. and was trying to hurry us up and at one point, he said please, be quiet, we're rolling. it was the ultimate disrespect. cbs says it's investigating but a lot of people feel kind of dissed by the events of last friday. >> steffan, you also quantify, too, that the president was in the area on december 5th and it could have been nice if he could have stopped by and the interior secretary was supposed to be at the december 7th ceremony. he did not show up. he was just a flat out no show. and they told you repeatedly, first move 25 yards away and then 75 yards away and then 300 yards away with these pearl harbor veterans was not enough. >> right. and, you know, even if -- if they think my story is made up, guys or if they think they don't believe these 24 world war ii veterans and 23 of them pearl harbor survivor as you indicated, the bottom line is you've been showing these pictures, is this how during pearl harbor week, the national cemetery of the pacific should be treated, walking on graves, the cameras, the booms, the

mikes. i mean, i just -- personally as an american, i took offense at it but they -- when they started hushing the veterans and rushing them along, that's why i took issue. and it went from a -- a look see om the executive producer through an e-mail. he said he was going to look at this incident to kind of accusing me of trying to take down a tv show. so you can imagine here in denver, 850koa.com is blowing up with all the picture and the accounts. it's something that's not going to go away and i think it could have with one simple, the buck needs to stop somewhere and it hasn't yet. >> maybe with an apology, is that what you're saying? > >> i think these veterans deserve it. they served our country and changed our country in world war ii. being rushed along as they're coming back to hawaii for the final time, it's disrespect. >> let's hear from cbs. our veterans deserve the highest level of respect and reverence for their service particularly during a ceremony of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

does that do it for you? >> it may do it for you. does it do for a guy that is 96 and never will go there again? what if one of these grave sites that they wanted to see was under the feet of the actors. would they have broken down production to lay a rose? i don't think so. >> the veteran who just had someone from the cast to come over and talk to them, they said no as they were on the bus. they couldn't say to a bunch 90-year-olds who served this country say hi. >> a caterer is walking with a plate of salmon and black berries across the graves and across the cemetery to go feed the presumably somebody on the crew. >> that's showbiz. all right. steffan tubbs, it is outrageous, thank you so much for joining us from koa radio in denver. all right. it is 7:11 right now in new york. >> arizona tried to get tough on illegal immigration but the feds said no way. now that case is headed to the highest court in the land. peter johnson jr. here next with who has the upper hand.

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>> quick headlines now. occupy protests turning violent as demonstrators try to block the port of seattle. police used pepper spray and arrested about a dozen people and former m.f. global chief jon corzine and two executives will testify again today that they don't know what happened to more than a billion dollars in customers' money. the money vanished when the brokerage firm collapsed. sounds fishy. >> all right, brian. the battle over arizona's tough immigration policy is heading to the supreme court. the justices there say they will rule on the controversial bill that sparked a nationwide debate and ignited a fierce legal battle between the department of

justice and governor jan brewer of arizona. the case could lead to landmark legislation on whether states should be allowed to develop their own immigration laws. joining us right now on the curvy couch, peter johnson jr., our legal analyst. >> good morning, how are you? >> fine, thank you very much. the supreme court is going to try to settle it. >> the supreme court is going to settle it. we should have a decision by june. the federal government said listen, there's other challenges in other states. south carolina, alabama, utah, on similar laws. you don't need to discuss this now. wait until those other cases are settled and then we'll see what kind of -- >> why wait? >> the issue in this case is arizona says we want to compliment, we want to cooperate with the federal government in helping enforce the laws that are on the books in the united states all right. the federal government is saying no, you don't want to compliment it. you want to step in and do frankly what we haven't done. >> that's right. >> and that's illegal. the state is saying no, we tracked it along with your federal laws and we're already

cooperating with the federal government as all 50 states are. stay out of our way. let us help. why would you want to get in the way, federal government? >> let's take a look at the provisions that have been blocked by courts of appeal. one making it a state crime to be in the country illegally and not registered with the federal government. two, making it illegal to seek work or working when not authorized. three, requiring state and local officers to determine the status of somebody who is arrested. and four, allowing warrantless arrests of anyone who might have violated laws punishable by deportation. >> what arizona is saying is when we arrest someone and we have reasonable cause to believe that they shouldn't belong here, we should have the right to go into the data base and it is the federal government data base and see who in fact belongs here. they're also saying, listen, we also have the right and the supreme court has affirmed it in the case this year of 2011 called the whiting case where arizona has the right to decide who should be granted a license

if, in fact, they're employing illegal workers. and so they're saying what's different here? as a state, we have constitutional rights and power to say who should be working, who should not be working and that's a state power. federal government says no, hands off. federal government really went out of their way to shut this down. they have this. they have the health care law. now they have a texas redistricting case so the potential is to up end this presidential election in ways that nobody, nobody anticipated. absolutely. >> i think kagan says she'll step off the case. >> she's going to step off the case because she was involved in this particular case. >> so that would seem to tip it in the state's favor, wouldn't it? >> i believe that arizona will win substantially on most of these counts. that they're defensible and constitutional under the law. >> all right, he'll be watching the supreme cot. peter johnson jr. >> absolutely. go to see you. >> thank you, sir. straight ahead, this isn't a

shed. that's a school. coming up, why big government bucks meant for childcare aren't exactly doing their job, would you say? and tim tebow is known as god's quarterback. why such a good role model is now the biggest controversy in football. former nfl player and christian danny weurfell is here to explain. ok, people. show me the best way to design a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia.

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>> some people say tebow has been winning because god is on his side. have you heard that? you know, i didn't believe it until yesterday. show the play i'm talking about. watch what happens here. there he goes.

>> wow. i've seen those headlines 20 times and i never noticed that. he's inspired his team and brought a nation to their feet but tim tebow's faith seems to be the biggest controversy in football but before there was a tebow, there was danny wuerfel, he won the heisman and went to the university of florida. he was an outstanding quarterback who many doubted would be successful in the nfl and was successful for seven years with the saints and redskins. welcome back to the couch. >> thanks. >> you voted for the heisman. that's what brings you to town every year. there's a lot of similarities between tim tebow and yourself. you also are a christian and you let everybody know that. did you get any of the backlash that tim tebow is experiencing right now for being somewhat overt with their religious practices? >> if you couldn't tell, i'm 15 years older. it was different then, you didn't have all the social media. he himself is a wonderful person to be around.

anybody who plays with him loves to be with him. with all the media that's out there, it's been polarizing. >> you think that would america would embrace the image of a tim tebow that wants to say thank you, god. >> he really, i don't think he tries to draw attention to himself and so much of his response, you know, this tebowing thing, it wasn't like a planned thing at all. he was just thankful for an exciting end and win and he got down and prayed. >> weren't you just honored together with tim tebow and steve spurrier recently? from florida? >> yeah, it was quite an honor to have some statues put up of us right outside of the stadium. >> when you get a statue of you, i think it's a great day. you're dealing with a personal challenge you have a disease that i never heard of called gbs. >> yes. very kind of unusual autoimmune disorder. i became temporarily paralyzed

this summer and it's been a really tough six months. >> you couldn't move. >> my legs were pretty much shut down and then my arms started to go bad. it was really -- it was really scary, difficult time. still wrestling with a lot of fatigue related to it. but i think really the key and somebody out there may start feeling their legs or arms go is to find treatment quick. as soon as you can get treatment for it, it can really help and it could be fatal if you don't. >> you say you tonight have the energy but you look fantastic. you did some great work for desire street. two of the people, the kids that you helped after katrina where you set up shop in the ninth ward are at lsu playing on that team that's probably going to be national champions. >> we're really, really excited about that. we've been able to help a lot of kids over the years in new orleans and other communities and two of them from the streets of new orleans are playing with the national championship with the lsu tigers. we're excited about that. >> how long will tim tebow keep

this going? you know tim and he looks very much like a new quarterback. as a quarterback, what do you see? >> i think he's making progress each week, too, and they're running more offense and he's making some good throws. he's always been clutch. i've never been surprised by that. we were on the bus with several heisman winners the other night and someone made the point that oh, the broncos are down 10-0 with two minutes left. we're like no big deal at all. he'll pull this off. it's amazing. it's amazing to see it happen. i'm really excited for him. >> especially all the doubters at the same time. amazing to be the player of year in florida, and go to the university of florida and win two national championships and so many people still doubt you. it happens. i'm glad to see you're doing all right. always love having you in after the heisman vote. what did you vote for? >> we can't say. whole new thing coming up. >> tell me, shut the camera off. can't do that. thanks so much. >> thanks, brian. >> straight ahead, it's tuesday. time to help you find a job. we'll reveal the top five companies hiring today.

miley cyrus is getting a lot of attention for partying in the u.s.a. her dad here to weigh in on this. there he is. that's the eye of the tiger the i wonder if he's going to fight me later and he'll tell us what christmas is like in the cyrus house. hope i don't have him in the grab bag. with the capital one venture card we get double miles on every purchase. so we earned a holiday trip to the big apple twice as fast! nner! [ garth ] we get double miles every time we use our card. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it's hard to beat double miles!

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>> we begin your headlines now with a fox news alert. a vicious assault under way in belgium. two people have died after at least one attacker threw several hand grenades into a crowd. it happened in the city, up to 12 more people were wounded. according to local reports, there were four separate explosions. the area surrounding the attack has been cordoned off by police while armed security personnel move in. we'll keep you up to date on this store. >> joran van der sloot attracting the attention of a not so secret admirer. the 55-year-old florida doctor says she's van der sloot's guardian angel. hammer reportedly foots the 24-year-old's legal bills and sends him care packages. she even -- watch this car, this worries me. this car gets very close. she even flew to peru. look out, get out of the way. i'll -- you know what? let's change video. good. to try to meet him in jail. van der sloot allegedly admitted to murdering stephanie flores

last year and he's suspected in the disappear an of natalee holloway in aruba. beside that, clean record. >> meanwhile, the government funded head start childcare centers are a danger zone for children according to a new inspector general's report. the department of health and human services released photos showing a machete left near a play area and buckets of household chemicals easily accessible to preschoolers. the report also says the centers fail to do criminal background checks on the people who work there. >> and talk about a bad way to start your day. check this out. a woman on her way to work in manchester, new hampshire, finds herself stuck in a sink hole. it was caused by a massive water main break. the good news here, she was not seriously hurt and those are your quick headlines for the bottom of the hour. >> did you leave the water running yesterday, brian? >> no, i wouldn't, i would have told you that, steve. thank you. >> christmas is about a lot more than gifts and parties but about spending time with our families and once again, the hallmark movie channel is putting the family into christmas with its new movie

"christmas comes to canan" starring billy ray cyrus. >> we've got a little family tradition around here. kids know all about this. it started one particular christmas, my daddy started it. been a pretty rough here. we weren't expecting much. but come christmas morning, here were all these gifts wrapped and under the tree like always. my mama when she seen it, she lit into my dad and said where did you get the money for all that? and daddy just smiled and looked at her and said don't you know nothing, woman? even if you're flat broke, you can still have some christmas. see to him, some christmas meant giving all of the gifts he really wanted to give when only your heart could afford it. >> excellent. actor and musician billy ray cyrus, brc is here on the curvy couch. good morning to you, sir. >> good to see you. >> are you cold? you're wearing a hat and wearing gloves. what's going on? >> a scarf. >> i came in right off the street and the wind is blowing.

it's cold out there. >> really? >> i saw you come right in, had your cup of coffee ready to go. >> tim horton's. >> putting the studio on a mountain and i really blame us. billy ray, first off, in that movie, you fall for a physical therapist. was that the physical therapist? that you were staring at? >> i think that was her, yeah. she's a great actress. great actress. >> how much easier is it when you're supposed to fall in love with somebody that's very attractive? as an actor? >> you know what? this particular movie and especially the writing, they wrote a great script and they had a great cast, gina is a fantastic actress so for me it's -- i go out there and try to keep it real and i let the actress act and i kind of do my thing. >> what about the message? because this appears to me to be the kind of movie that you can gather the whole family around and watch. >> that's what it's for really. it's kind of a, you know, throwback to some of the simpler movies of my time, your guys' time of, you know, get the family together, turn on a good

warm and fuzzy christmas movie. this crosses the lines a little bit and gets a little edgier with the racial tension and the fact that there's some pretty serious controversy going on in our hometown and, you know, my character and the folks at hallmark was willing to hit it head on so it was a great opportunity to make a christmas movie that actually said a whole t more than just about christmas. >> what are your christmases like? what's the tradition of the billy ray cyrus christmas? >> tradition would be trimming the tree, you know, the -- it's all about the gift of giving really. you know, try to have a great surprise which was one of the things that i enjoyed most and i mentioned to y'all last time i was here doing the homecoming show and welcoming back our troops was like christmas every day. every time you seen one of those soldiers reunite with their families and the kids see their moms and dads and it was just a -- it was like christmas all the time. just that element of surprise. >> that's good. >> we try to keep that same

thing going with our christmas morning, have some good surprises and we've also this year really working on different things in our community, different ways of giving back and trying to make christmas all about the gift of giving. >> would you open the presents christmas eve or christmas -- >> i'm a christmas morning guy. but i'm the only one so everybody else does it christmas eve but i like to save it for christmas morning. >> i'm with you! christmas eve is for especially -- that's for dinner or hanging out with cousins but christmas morning, that's when santa gets there. >> that's right. >> that's the excitement. >> you know what the excitement in my family was that santa didn't wrap the gifts. >> really? >> yes, i figured out later on. figured out. but -- it was so fun, because we would just run down the stairs and everything would just be right there under the fireplace with no pulling the paper off. and i don't know if it's a lutheran tradition or swedish but we opened all our gifts on christmas eve. the ones that were wrapped. >> that's perfect. that's perfect.

in this movie, what my character does, daniel, he has a family tradition that regardless -- my guy canan is in texas and i'm a struggling farmer and from when i was a kid, my dad had gave the family a speech in the movie that even if you're dirt poor, you can still have some christmas because some christmas is about giving a gift that only your heart can afford and a lot of times that's a dream, you know, and it's being able to tell your kids to pursue their dreams, to follow their goals and know that we may not be able to afford it now but keep your dreams there, some day you can reach your goal and i think everybody this year, you know, in real life across america, i hope that all americans, this is some pretty tough times, everybody is going through and i do hope that everybody keeps that dream alive and that everybody gets to share in some christmas. >> that's good. speaking of kids, your daughter miley just celebrated her 19th birthday. she's been on the internet. we saw some crazy video.

that's just a joke, she's fine, right? >> she's fine, absolutely! she's fine. she's very excited about christmas. she's been to haiti twice this year. helping the kids that have never been able to hear before installing those hearing aids, it's a great program to help the kids hear. and she was just on cnn heroes this past -- >> we don't get that channel. >> she did a great job on there and was out there really contributing and giving back. >> you were worried when she made the transition from the disney star to the huge rock star and what she is now. she also is a tremendous actress. you worry on that transition. you made that clear. >> yeah, now she's worried about me. so we're just kind of traded it off. >> why is she worried about you? >> i'm going through different transitions in my life, we're working on the different things of where i'm going to go and i was just kidding. >> ok, i was going wait a minute. >> she probably is. >> with the picture that i love is the two of you on stage together. >> thank you. >> you can perform together. i mean, she genuinely is one of

the younger stars that has a great voice. i mean, some of the stars out there get famous, they don't really have the pipes. >> that one there, we're singing the song that i wrote for her when she left for california called "ready, set, don't go" and it was a huge record for us. and a huge episode on the show to this day, they still -- >> it came out just before my daughter went to college and so, you know, put that on and it was like please, turn it off. >> you mentioned that before. >> i'm going to try to write some happy songs in the next couple of years. >> by the way, how do you write songs? on the piano? >> my songs just come to me when i'm dealing with the emotion. in that particular case of "ready, set, don't go" miley was leaving for california and it was that moment of my 12-year-old little girl is growing up. this is going to change our lives quite a bit and walked into an empty house and there was my i go guitar and the song kind of came. i thought i was ready. "ready, set, don't go." >> do you write it down right

away? >> usually i grab a recorder and i play it and sing it. i hear the melody and words and they all come so fast, usually the whole song and i just sing the song as it comes from somewhere. and that's -- it's good at times for me but i kind of wish i could be more of a method songwriter. >> works for you. >> sit and write a song. i play it by ear. that's how my songs come. >> ready, set, watch it is the new movie over on the hallmark channel. billy ray cyrus, thank you very much for joining us. >> good to be with you, you too. >> now that you warmed up, you have to go back outside. >> i know. >> are you looking for a job this christmas season? we are here to help you. we will reveal the top five companies that are hiring right now. >> and how long before china takes america's place as a global super power? our next guest says china's economy will be bigger than ours in just five years. ♪

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and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. >> now, news by the numbers. that's how much mitt romney raised at a campaign fund raiser with governor christie last night in parsippany, new jersey. the number of fighter jets that the u.s. government has ordered since 1997, the last one rolling off the assembly line today at georgia's lockheed martin plant. there you go. and finally, 300,265, that's how many people broke the record for doing the most jumping jacks in 24 hours. first lady michelle obama as you can see right in there led 400 in front of the white house. congratulations. gretch? >> our next guest says that we are living through the end of

nearly 500 years of western dominance and that within the next five years, china's economy will exceed our own. and it's all because the rest of the world has caught on to what made western civilization great to begin with. joining me now is harvard professor and historian neil ferguson, author of "civilization, the west and the rest." like the title. good morning to you, mr. ferguson. >> good morning, gretchen, how are you? >> professor, i should say. what do you mean that china will take us over in five years? >> not going to take us over, it's going to overtake us. the international monetary fund has china's gdp, its gross domestic product, its economy, larger than that of the united states. as soon as 2016, just five years away, and, of course, this is one of the greatest catch ups in the history of economics because if you go back to the late 1970's, china's economy was tiny. this is an amazing achievement. it's the biggest, fastest industrial revolution of all time and i think many americans are in denial about this because it's so hard to believe that they could have done it so fast.

>> not if you've seen that commercial that's out there where they fast forward and they show china laughing at us about 20 years down the road. you think it's actually going to be quicker. i want to point out your top six killer apps that you believe were the reason for the western assension to begin with. number one, competition between nations and within nations. they learn that one from us? >> that's right. i mean, we had the most competitive economies and political systems in the western world. i'm talking here about europe and north america. and for many years, most asian economies were run by monolithic empires with very little economic or political competion. now, there's so much competition in china that the city looks like a more dynamic city than any city in the west. >> the rise of scientific revolution. now science was done. what do they pick up from us on this? >> our scientific revolution from the 17th century was quite unique and really right down until very recently, the west and particularly the united

states has led in terms of scientific invasion -- innovation, if you look at patents, japan overtook the united states a few years ago and china overtook germany to take over third place. the competition in science is already hotting up and you can expect the nobel prizes to start going to the chinese, maybe a generation 20, 30 years from now. >> number three is based on property rights, the rule of law. >> well, we used to have the best rule of law in the world here in the united states. sometimes i think we now have the rule of lawyers which is something else. what you see in the rest of the world is a dramatic improvement in the quality of legal institutions. and without a really good legal framework, capitalism doesn't work well. hong kong is a shiny beacon. the chinese lag behind a bit. >> number four is revolution in medicine that doubled life expectancy. we've done that brilliantly and the rise of the consumer society that made industrial revolution

worth it. >> they certainly closed the gap on both of those. life expectancy is longer in hong kong than the united states. we lead the world in expenditure in health care and not on outcomes. as for the consumer society, get this, of the 30 biggest shopping malls in the world, only three are in the united states. our highly leveraged consumers are lagging behind even in the consumer society stakes. >> ok. number six is the western work ethic. my favorite one. you say it's rooted in protestantism. i know something about that one. and they've learned it, too. huh? >> well, this is one of the most fascinating things. if you look across the western world especially in europe, working hours per year are dramatically down. the average south korean now works 1,000 hours a year more than the average german. and even here, we're working less though it's partly involuntary because of the unemployment and short time work whereas work ethics in asia have soared. >> well, you say we're entering a new era in which there won't

be a natural western asendency that people like us take for granted. fascinating discussion. thanks for your time today. >> thanks, gretchen. >> wow. better pay attention, right? well, all i want for christmas is a job! up next, the top five companies hiring right now. and on this day in 1962, "big girls don't cry" by the four seasons was the number one song. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fru and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8.

i mean, there's still -- some of these companies are actually going to still be hiring some extra hands to get them into the first quarter of 2012. so there's still jobs out there. >> let's talk about the container store. 53 locations, 22 states. >> yeah, the container store is going to be looking at -- they think that these positions are at least going to go through mid february. they need sales associates and managers. this is one of the best companies to work for according to fortune for the past 12 years. they are really into on-the-job training. most sales associates get 10 hours of training. 200 hours of training over a year. that's a big difference. >> what -- >> all sorts of containers, you've never been there? >> no. >> never been to a container store? brian, oh, it's fun. walls to walls of stuff that you can put your stuff into that stuff. >> it will be a road trip. meanwhile, if you look good in a t-shirt, may i suggest town sports which has new york sports club, boston sports club, philly sports clubs and washington sports clubs. >> they have 158 fitness clubs

across the united states. fitness jobs are expected to grow by 29% between now and 2018 and remember the first quarter of the year is their big push because right after all that turkey and all that champagne and all that -- those cookies that you ate at the party, you know that was you on saturday night, you're going to be looking to the gym on january 1st. >> tell me about the picture people. they take pictures of people. >> in the malls! >> in the mall. any further questions? >> you go into the mall, you see these little -- you go with your kids, whatever you want to do. they actually need photographers, they need people that can actually help with sales. and managers as well but yeah, it's basically mall jobs but they're actually going to be hiring not just for the holidays but throughout the year. >> a lot of people go shopping on line, amazon.com, they need people to put things in boxes. >> amazon.com, i brought this company up a couple of times this year. they continue to hire and expand. these distribution centers are a million square feet and they're continuing to build.

he's not done growing amazon.com. he wants to upgrade the technology, that's an engineering type of position but for the holiday shipping, distribution, handling products. they are busy, busy, busy this holiday season. i can't wait to find out what the on-line sas numbers are going to be when we get the totals for december. they'll be blockbuster. >> great, mountainjobs.com? >> people ask me where can i go to find the jobs? all of the ski resorts are hiring. go to this web site. mountainjobs.com to find out where the resort positions are. >> if you want to be a ski bum. >> you know what, if you want to be a ski bum or you want to work for the next three or four months, this is the place to go. again, this is their -- the first quarter, ski season is in full gear. they need people and look, if you don't have a job right now, unemployment is still at 8.6% but remember, more than 300,000 people just gave up. look, put a smile on your face. don't give up. go work at a ski resort for three months, make some money. transition yourself. >> make cheryl happy. every day is christmas. >> don't sit home and be depressed. i don't want to hear that. >> i want you skiing! >> if anybody out there got a

job from this particular segment with cheryl, let us know. e-mail us and tell us your story and check out cheryl at noon today on fox business network. >> because you get 5%. cheryl, people report themselves. >> thank you. >> all right. meanwhile coming up straight ahead, who doesn't like christmas carolers? can you say the post office? a group of people tossed out for singing. no singing here! your e-mails are pouring in. >> he's going country and people are loving it. darius rucker here live on this tuesday. so who ordered the cereal that can help lower olesterol

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>> gretchen: good morning, everyone. today is tuesday, december 13, 2011. i'm gretchen carlson. i hope you're going to have a fantastic day. , a fox news alert. a european city under siege.

two people died, more than a dozen injured. more break details seconds away. >> steve: what would it take to get newt gingrich out of the race for president? >> one million dollars. >> steve: yeah. a conservative famous one, not dr. evil, just put that million dollars offer on the table. details straight ahead. >> brian: these world war ii veteran's once in a lifetime trip to pearl harbor, we're told to keep quiet and move along, at pearl harbor, at a gave yard. -- graveyard. there is a tv show to shoot and hollywood suddenly comes first. "fox & friends" starts right now >> you're watching "fox & friends." that's the great way to begin your day. >> gretchen: all right. so we hope you have a great day. let's get right to your headlines because there is a developing breaking story coming out of belgium. two people have died and at least a dozen others injured

following a grenade attack at a crowded bus stop. these images just in to fox news right now. witnesses also reported hearing gun fire. according to news reports, there were at least three attackers, one reportedly already in custody. another suspect apparently took his own life. police and medical teams are now on the scene. no word yet on the motive for the attack. another fox news alert. two army helicopters crashed during the training exercise, leaving four soldiers dead. the accident happened last night at joint base louis mccord near tacoma, washington. two other people were hurt. the names of the victims not being leased. the senior commander at the base says there will be a thorough investigation to figure out what went wrong. another fox news alert now. yet another u.s. drone has crashed. this time in the saychells. the american embassy says the

drone crashed in an international airport. no injuries reported so far. a group of carolers in maryland are getting scrooged. they just wanted to spread a little christmas cheer. but instead, they were thrown out of the post office in silver spring. the reason? no singing allowed on government property. a spokesperson says the only reason you should be inside is for postal business. if you have to. here is what some of you had to say. shelly, ba humbug. if i was in line, i would have had everybody singing. patty says, isn't it hypocritical to not allow them to sing, yet the u.s. government sells stamps during the christmas season? those are your headlines. >> steve: let's talk politics. rudy guiliani says newt gingrich may be stronger than mitt romney, although if you look at the crowd, as you can see there in wyndham, new hampshire last night, 1,000 people, it was overflow, you would think newt gingrich was getting a great

reception. he said among other things, you will not see me bow down to a saudi king. he got a standing ovation. he promised a positive campaign. even though the campaign between him and mitt romney was not positive, and mitt romney threw the first punch yesterday sitting down with brian in new hampshire. watch. >> brian: do you believe that since he took money from fannie and freddie, hated agencies now, do you believe he should give that money back? >> i sure do. he was at a debate saying politicians who took money from freddie and fannie should go to jail, which is outrageous in itself. but he says he was in a consulting business? that's very different than the consulting business other people have been in. one of the things that people recognize in washington is that people go there to serve the people and then they stay there to serve themselves. >> steve: zing. >> brian: yeah. there he goes. he's saying give the money back. talking about over a million

dollars. newt gingrich, said this. >> i love the way he and his consultants -- i would just say that if governor romney would like to give back all the money he's earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years of being, that i would be glad to then listen to him and i'll bet you $10, not 10,000, that he won't take the offer. >> gretchen: all right. so earlier i said nativity for tat. do you care about that? a majority of you say you don't care about the infighting because you want the candidates to be look forward. you want them to be looking forward to how they would fix the problems that the united states is affected with right now and i would tend to agree with the majority. >> brian: but the best part about -- to me, the most interesting about the candidates to find out what they'll be like as president is to see what they've done and where they

stood. i think there is a dramatic difference between consulting/lobbying for fannie and freddie and running pain capital, this multi national company that would go in as its charter and restructure failing companies, at which time some people would lose job, but the hope was some people would -- it would grow. that's totally different. >> gretchen: but it's taking away from the discussion of how they would fix the current problems right now and that's what americans want to hear. they want to hear, what would newt gingrich do to fix social security? what would mitt romney do to fix medicare? those are the things that they want to hear. >> brian: but to round out the candidate, you got to find out what they've done. >> gretchen: for the most part we know. newt gingrich was the speaker of the house and mitt romney ran successful businesses. >> brian: don't you want to know what they think about each other? >> gretchen: we know they want to win.

>> steve: i think most americans want to see a positive campaign. but it's the negative stuff that brings out the other side of the story. newt gingrich has said, he's vowed he would keep it positive, but yesterday you could see it. he was throwing the mud at romney and romney was throwing it back at him. he says, there is a caveat to him keeping it clean. here he is once again with carl cameron. >> i've said all along if i'm directly challenged, i have the right to respond. but i'm not going to go out and pick fights. i'm not going to go out and run negative ads. i'm going to talk about positive things. >> gretchen: i think there is a difference. >> steve: if he doesn't run negative ad, he will keep his word. >> gretchen: that's right. that's different than -- so if he does go out and do that, he'll be hypocritical. but it's interesting because so far newt gingrich has sort of stayed with that theme and i think pundits would argue that's one of the reasons he's risen to the top of the polls is that that's why he got the standing ovation last night when he said, let's have a cease fire here. i think the american people

don't want republicans to attack each other. if you are a republican, you want to beat barak obama. >> steve: right. but some people, some other candidates did attack newt gingrich when he was at 3 and 4% and he never returned fire. now that he's up there and he gets a big shot from mitt romney, he's going to turn around and hit him with a bazooka, asking him to give the money back. >> brian: we all remember john mccain and george bush 43. it was bitter. we remember bush and dole, it was bitter. they survived. reagan and ford didn't get along after reagan tried get the nomination. it was bitter. and the world survives and the party thrives. >> gretchen: you think it's different now? see, i get this sense in america that there is a different -- >> brian: not really. think about the '70s. gas was through the roof. we don't have enough. lines were long. interest rates around 10%. everyone is saying, we're questioning our leadership. you're looking at nixon and the scandal. that's a lot more perilous than

this. >> steve: none of this stuff about newt gingrich or mitt romney came up until the general election and you're a month out and suddenly somebody says, did you know that he got $1.2 million from fannie and fred? you would be going, wait a minute. then his opponent would say he ought to give that money back. it's better to shake all this stuff loose right now. in fact, there is so much stuff on newt gingrich, michael savage, the radio host says, he is willing to give newt gingrich $1 million to drop out right now because he is unelectable. how much? 1 million, much like the 1 million dr. evil promised. >> you hold the world ransom for $1 million. >> don't you think we should maybe ask for more than a million dollars? >> steve: go for a trillion. >> gretchen: this is what i'm talking about. i just think this hurts the republican party, just like it

would hurt the democratic party if you made an offer like that for somebody to drop out. >> steve: he really doesn't like him. >> gretchen: i know, but it doesn't help the whole mission, which -- play the recorder over again. if you're a republican, you want to beat barak obama. that doesn't help the mission. >> brian: it helps romney's mission. >> steve: absolutely. >> brian: hawaii 5-0 is a show that came back from the 1970s today and that is the theme song. they actually shoot in hawaii where they could choose los angeles and shoot there. but they also decided on the week of december 7 marking the december 7 attack on pearl harbor, they have a shooting schedule. but there is also this thing called a tour group of 90 plus hero veterans in some cases who served our country in world war ii, men at pearl harbor that day who wanted to go through the grave site to see friends and family who gave their lives. but there was one problem. >> gretchen: the hawaii 5-0 thought they were getting in the way. the production crew.

that's the allegation, that they thought they were getting in the way and in some case, apparently they asked some of these veterans to hurry up their ceremonies they were having at these grave sites, which is hard to believement we spoke earlier to a radio reporter from colorado who was with this group of veterans and witnessed it firsthand. here is stephen tubbs. >> i know firsthand that these veterans felt disrespected. at one point, we were hushed and rushed through a rose laying ceremony on some of the graves. there was a production member with a backpack and an ear piece who basically walked through all of us as we were doing this somber, very somber ceremony and was trying to hurry us up. at one point he said, please, be quiet. we're rolling. it was the ultimate disrespect and right now, cbs says they're investigating. but i can tell that you a lot of people feel kind of dissed by the events of last friday. >> steve: sure. and stephen says that he accompanied this group of pearl harbor survivors, average age

91. they were told by cbs, we rented this part of the cemetery today and later, get out of the line of sight. if you don't belong here, clear out. there is a picture of some of the guys. we have now heard from cbs. >> brian: yeah. cbs says we were surprised to hear this report and our looking into the matter. our veterans deserve the highest level of respect, especially during a ceremony honoring those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. they made one request, after forcing these guys to go from 25 to 75 to 300 yards and told just to leave, and they went on the bus. they said, did you guy just see a cast member? so they ran down and said, can you send a cast member to be in this and say hello to the veterans on the bus? they said no. >> gretchen: e-mail from andrea in pennsylvania, what? you mean there is something more important than hollywood? what else would you expect from people in a city with the highest self-absorption rate?

>> steve: plus, brian in idaho says good, i watched my last episode of the show. i can't imagine some self-righteous hollywood types disrespecting our veterans. shameful. all right. thank you. >> gretchen: tweet from mark schaefer, that show will be boycotted by my family and friends. such disrespect on such sacred ground. >> steve: the funny thing is about the show, they're very pro military, if you watch the new remake. >> brian: right. so here is this, if you're pro-america, when they start playing "taps," at least stop. if the director yells at you later, that's his problem. >> steve: a group of veteran next time, they'll be more respectful of them. >> gretchen: hopefully they will. do you know what you want to do for the rest of your life? one school making students pick a career path in the fifth grade? is that a good idea? education crusader michelle rhee is here next. >> steve: if you're going outright steal somebody's car, better make sure it's not a u.s. marine standing nearby because he will kick your butt. the story straight ahead

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>> gretchen: superstar education reformer michelle rhee is making serious changes to america's schools through her new group, students first. so it was nearly a year ago when she joined us on "fox & friends" to lay out her goal. >> we are treating teachers like the professionals that they are and valuing them for their impact on student achievement. we also start with making sure that parents and families are empowered with real choices and real information. last, we want to make sure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and that we're not wasting those, especially in this tough fiscal time. >> gretchen: michelle joins us from sacramento, california, to give us a progress report. the year end report. good morning to you, michelle.

>> good morning, how are you? >> gretchen: doing just fine. so you had made a huge impact in just the last year. we should also mention you were the former chancellor of schools in washington, d.c. where you did major reforms. so let's look at the seven states where students first has been able to pass new laws. what did you do in these states? >> we got a tremendous amount accomplished in those states with our members. we got about 50 laws passed and they include things like getting rid of last and first outlay-off policies. we also changed the way teachers are evaluated so that much of how they're evaluated is based on student achievement and how much their students are progressing. we also changed laws to teacher tenure and making sure that parents, especially low income parents, have choices in terms of their children's education and what schools their kids are going to. >> gretchen: so how did you accomplish that, because many states and local communities have the union policies intact,

which would be against some of those things that you just mentioned. >> right. that's the whole reason why we started students first in lots of ways. you have special interest groups like the teachers unions, like textbook manufacturers, different groups who had tremendous influence and sway over politicians and the kinds of policies and laws that were being passed and we thought, you know what? we need to have a national organized interest group that's advocating on behalf of children and what's in their best interest. so that's why we started students first. we have about 900,000 members across the country and the way that we got those laws passed was we had our members get mobilized, get active and sakes you know what? we're not going to let special interest drive the day of what happens to our kids. this will be based on what we as parents and teachers and grandparents and business owners feel is necessary to make america's schools the best in the world again. >> gretchen: giving the power back to the people, i guess. so you have singled out three ways that you believe we can

improve our education. recognize great teachers, what you just talked about. regain the competitive spirit. i like that one. and stop political partisanship. i like that one, too. >> yes. >> gretchen: talk about the last two. >> well, we have to regain the american competitive spirit. we've gotten to the point in this country where we are spending a whole lot of time congratulating kids for mediocrity. we want to give every kid a medal or trophy or ribbon even when they're not particularly good at things because we want kids to feel good about themselves. that's not going to make them competitive with their global counterparts in places like japan and india and china across the globe. and the last thing is that we have to get rid of the partisan politics. right now in washington and in state capitols across the country, people are so busy worrying about is this a republican policy? is this a democratic policy? what we need to do is focus on is this a policy that is going

to do good things for kids? and if you can answer yes to that question, then we have to move forward with it. >> gretchen: i have 30 seconds left. about. your thoughts about the situation in georgia, making ninth graders pick a career path, guiding them as early as fifth grade. my goodness, if i had to do that, i don't know what i'd be. is it a good idea? >> i think i'd be a failed ballerina at this point if that was the case. you know, it's important to expose children to a variety of different career fields and it certainly is important to begin to build the skills that children are going to need to have a great career. but at the end of the day, our job is to graduate children who have options in life. they have the option to go to a four-year university if that's what they choose to too, or the option to go straight into the work force. but we can't decide that for kids when they're ten years old. >> gretchen: always great to speak to you. michelle rhee, thanks so much, founder of students first. >> thanks. >> gretchen: coming up on the show, when our troops are pulled out, these guys go in.

behind the scenes of america's private warriors, next. he's done it all from hootie and the blowfish from performing in front of the president. darius rucker here to show off his new country swagger. y itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia.

>> brian: the defense contractor bracks with water got a bad name after a deadly shootout in iraq in 2007. 17 civilians ended up dead in that situation. following that incident, blackwater was banned from operating in iraq. and now as u.s. forces leave iraq, black it is water is looking to go back? this time with a new name and a new mission. it's basically a new organization. ted wright is a ceo of hack deemi, formerly known as blackwater. did i say it right? >> no, you didn't. it's academy.

>> brian: so ted, why did you think blackwater needed to change its focus? >> simply stated, it's a new company. and the new name just describes the changes we've made. and the changes include a new ownership team. we have all new owners, a new board of directors, a totally new leadership team, and a refocused strategy on training and security services, as well as a change of our headquarters to arlington, virginia. we moved there to be closer to our customers. >> gretchen: eric prince was the original founder of this. you never met him. >> right. >> brian: he's in another country right now forming their own essentially militia. are you doing anything like that? >> no, of course not. we're not a mercenary organization. we protect people that are doing their business and train other people to protect people as well. >> brian: who pays you? >> our major customer is the united states government. >> brian: and they are basically the state department more than anybody else? >> the state department is probably our largest client. >> brian: they will say to you, hey, watch my ambassador, take care of our embassy. i would imagine, a huge contract

and a big need is iraq? >> that's true. but not a big contract for us. we are not in iraq. >> brian: looking to? >> we'd like to reenter iraq. it's a good business there with a state department. they're our counter customer. >> brian: who make up your organization? >> mostly special forces, either retired or got off their first assignment, navy seals, that kind of thing. >> brian: so when you take over this company, which was very successful, but i guess controversial 'cause we're in the middle of two wars and asked to do a lot, your first focus was let's change the image. how? >> no, my first focus was to have a laser-like focus on outstanding and world class governance and accountability and openness. that was my first focus. >> brian: and you got it? >> absolutely we got it. once that's in place, then we can change the image to match that laser-like focus on governance. >> brian: why does there steam to be a need for private contractors in today's securit as well as armed conflict? >> it's a dangerous world out

there. i think it has been dangerous, but we've not been in places in the middle east like we are today with the numbers. >> brian: on the outside, when you look at this organization you think to yourself, don't we have special forces? shouldn't special forces be doing this? are you saying we don't have enough? >> what i'm saying is the military, the special forces are the best in the world at what they do. we're not trying to supplant them or replace them in any way. but there is a great need for the type of services we provide and i don't see that need getting smaller in the future. >> brian: how many guys do you have? >> about 1,000 right now. >> brian: where are you looking to go with that? >> we're in afghanistan heavy now. the nix is changing more from just a pure security mission into a training mission so we can trip afghannies. we'd like to move more into africa and latin america. >> brian: ted, thank you for joining us. congratulations on your company and everything you've done to

retrain it it and we'll be hearing from you. >> thank you very much and i'd love for to you come down and see what we have. we have a 6,000-acre training facility. i think you would have fun seeing it. >> brian: that would be fantastic. it's just that i don't have the special forces background to get over the walls with the ropes. >> we'll make an exception for you. >> brian: and leap over rivers in a single stride. thanks so much. coming up straight ahead, if you're going to try and steal someone's car, better make sure there is not a united states marine standing by. one thief learned the hard way. then, he's gone country. and people are loving had. darius rucker here live. he was one of our first biggests on "fox & friends." he's gotten bigger and bigger are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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>> brian: let's get to your headlines. brand-new video in from afghanistan where secretary of defense leon panetta arrived on a surprise visit to thank american troops. later he will talk about pakistan. that should be interesting. >> gretchen: basketball tryouts take a horrifying turn when two teenage boys are shot. it happened on the outdoor court of a south texas middle school. one of the victims critical company now. police are questioning three men who were hunting deer near the school. investigators say it's still too

early to tell whether the boys were actually targeted or if the shootings was an accident. >> steve: meanwhile, meet accused killer joran van der sloot's not so secret admirer. 55-year-old mary hamer says she's his guardian angel. the florida doctor reportedly foots the 24-year-old's legal bills and sends him care packages. she even flew to peru twice to meet him in jail. joran van der sloot allegedly admitted to murdering stephanie flores last year. he is also suspected in the disappearance of natalee holloway in aruba. >> brian: don't mess with this marine. sergeant matthew la wrote says his training kicked in when he heard a man calling for help. he spotted 48-year-old man bolting from the car he was trying to steal. la roach managed to hold the suspect until police arrived. listen. >> i know buddies who have essentially given their lives to do more heroic things than i

have. >> brian: the victim and his family are so grateful, they invited la roach over for dinner. >> steve: that's great. >> gretchen: is that academy or was it what you said? >> brian: it was academy. i thought it was academi. why is she laughing? >> steve: we're going to introduce a man offscreen. let's go ahead and find out where there is good weather for blowfish. as you can see, widely scattered showers across the central plains states, back through the -- as you can see, southern california. it's dry in the eastern third of the u.s. on this tuesday. and it's cold, too. right now caribou, maine, 23. about freezing here in new york city. the ohio valley, stuck in the 30s as well. it's freeze not guilty raleigh-durham. lot of 40s, from the mid atlantic back through the mid missouri and mississippi valley at this hour. but later on today, thing are going to warm up into the 50s and the 60s.

but some 30s lingering throughout portions of new england and if you're lucky enough to be down in florida today, temperatures will be in the 80s. that's your travelcast. >> gretchen: first he was rock, now he's this. ♪ all the girls that broke my heart ♪ ♪ all the things i do but i didn't know ♪ ♪ thank god for all i met ♪ 'cause led me here today >> gretchen: ever since he made his way on the country sing in 2008, the former front man of hootie and the blowfish has been on fire. his album has produced two number one hits, and his newest single which he'll be performing is climbing the charts. >> steve: joining us is two-time grammy winner and superstar, darius rucker. good morning to you. >> good morning, how are you doing? >> steve: first of all, was that

a pacer? >> that was a pacer, yeah. any time you put a pacer in the video, you're cool. >> it was cheap to get that one. >> steve: brian mentioned, you're one of the few big stars who still comes back. taylor swift kind of, she made a stop here. >> brian: miley cyrus. >> steve: the band perry, they still come back. but you, big star, still come back. >> i feel a kinship. i hosted once. i feel like i'm part of the team. >> brian: i'm going to say something, i thought we'd be closer. [ laughter ] this is a guy that i'm going to hang out with. he gets change from a 20 from me. >> steve: thank you. >> it's the academy thing. >> gretchen: okay, wait a minute. >> brian: now i know why. [ laughter ] >> i'm sorry. >> gretchen: i too want you to host the show, by the way.

let's talk about your country transition because you did it with such ease. i think a lot of people were surprised, you probably were. >> i was. >> steve: you were? >> yeah, i expected some success, but not what happened. i just wanted to make some records and have some fun. i didn't expect to have five number ones and all that stuff. i wanted to be part -- i wanted to be in the world and it went crazy. it's been a lot of fun. >> steve: have you always considered yourself, since you were a young man, to be a country guy? >> i always liked country music a lot. >> steve: at your core? >> it wasn't until probably when foster and those bands came out in the mid 80s when i -- that's when i realized i was a country singer, 'cause i sounded like that guy. >> brian: i grew up a little different than you. i grew up with rap all around me. so this country was like foreign to me. but it's growing on me gradually. so once you started singing, meeting the people, did it ohm grow from there? >> absolute low. when i started singing it, it

kept growing. the things that's amazing is watching how big country music is getting, with taylor and brad paisley and those guys. playing in stadiums. it's amazing to me. like i say all the time, i'm grabbing on the coat tails and ride along. >> gretchen: one of the things you're riding with is this grammy artist program. you're revealing what? >> i'm not revealing anything. i'm just playing. the grammy is doing that stuff. they've got a big show for me and i'm being honored. it's really cool to be honored by the grammies. that's the ultimate in everything for a musician here in america. so being honored by the grammy is amazing. >> brian: aren't you doing a series of intimate events? >> i'm doing one tonight in new york city. >> steve: as they reveal your journey to where you are. >> yeah. >> steve: that eventually led to the white house, right? >> one of the things i'm most proud of in my rear is i've sung for every living president. for me, singing with chris christopherson was amazing to

me. that was great night. >> gretchen: the three of you sitting this on the stools playing guitar, it was you, me and kris and lyle lovett in the middle. we were doing a workshop for students right there at the white house. >> steve: a workshop, like a free university thing in the east room? >> yeah. we sat around, it was a bunch of students. we talked about song writing and played songs for them. >> steve: that's so cool. >> brian: there is something about your music, it doesn't seem cookie cutter country. it seems like you put your own stamp on it a little bit. >> yeah. that's the only way i think i can do it. i'm not trying to be anybody else. i just want to make the songs and records that i like. so i try to put as much of me as i can into the songs. >> brian: it's a little rock? >> i'm always a little bit rock. >> steve: charleston, 1966, what's that about? >> that was the year that my favorite -- i was born in charleston? 1966 and my favorite country record of all time is a record by randy foster called "del rio, texas."

>> steve: so you stole his idea? >> i stole his idea. >> gretchen: coming up later in the show, you're going to be performing for us. >> yes. >> gretchen: so we will look forward to that. >> thank you. >> gretchen: what are you going to sing? >> i'm going to sing "i got nothing." it's my new single. it's one of the songs that when you write it, you finish -- i was real proud of it. it's a song about when it doesn't work out. >> gretchen: i heard that all morning as you were doing the sound check. i thought you were just saying, i got nothing, i got nothing with the audience. that's actually the lyrics of the song! all right. great. >> steve: you've got to like, in some measure, going out on the road because you can sleep later. you got three kids at home. you got a wife. >> yeah. the road is fun because you can sleep a little, but ever since i stopped partying, i still get up at 7:00 o'clock. your body clock is so used to that. then in the summer, my bus is their summer camp. so they're out with me the whole time. that's a lot of fun. >> brian: did you stop partying

that's why you didn't call me. >> i used to live in the clubs. >> brian: no wonder i haven't seen you! >> gretchen: we look forward to you singing in about, well, 15 minutes from now. >> steve: thank you. >> gretchen: he's leaving the government healtcare business, but not without a parting shot. the man behind medicare and medicaid here to tell us why the entitlement programs really burn so much taxpayer cash ♪ i'm burning out this useless telephone ♪ ♪ my hair is gone ♪ cheap cologne ♪ motor home ♪ i'm the rocket man! [ both ] ♪ rocket man ♪ burning out his fuse up here alone ♪

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>> gretchen: fox news alert. updating a developing story from

belgium. two people have been killed and at least a dozen injured following a grenade attack at a crowded bus stop. much of the footage into fox news too graphic to show you this morning. witnesses reported four huge blasts and then a series of smaller explosions or gun fire. according to the reports, there were three attackers, one is reportedly in custody. another apparently took his own life. no word yet on any motive. keep it right here on fox for the latest details. >> steve: thanks. now that our next guest is no longer heading up medicare and medicaid in this country, he's calling out congress for wasteful government health spending, saying billions could be saved by eliminating waste. joining us right now is the former administrator of the centers for medicare and medicaid service, dr. donald we arewick, good morning to you, sir. >> good morning. >> steve: when i saw this figure, itches astounded. something like between 150 and

$250 billion a year that we spend on health care is just wasted. how? >> first let's be clear, it's not government waste, it's health care, overall health care, whether pick up or private payers. health care was built in fragments and there are a lot of defects in the way it's delivered. patients know that. and so if we define waste as activities that actually don't help patients at all, in fact, usually hurt them, that number -- the total is pretty high. probably the main category are coordination failures. a lot of health care expenditure is devote to do people with chronic ills, like diabetes or arrest arthritis. they go from hospital to home and tell that you their care isn't well communicated, communication fails. that costs money. people get worse, they bounce back in the hospital. that's a very important form of waste. it's only one, but it's there and there for everybody. it's not medicare and medicaid. it's the total way health care works. >> steve: it's across the board. you say it could be between 20 and 30% of what we spend on

health care. some of the other areas of waste, overtreatment of patients. you mention the failure to coordinate care, the complexity of how health care works, burdensome rules and, of course, fraud as well. okay. that's quite a menu right there. you know that they're all problems. congress supposedly knows. why can't we do something about this? >> it's a pretty complex system. 2 1/2 -- $2.6 trillion of expenditures, it's not going to turn on a dime. but i think everybody knows it's there, the doctors, nurse, the hospitals. i hope congress, that we really do a l of things that really don't help people and the cost of that is that we fail to be able to do things that can help people. getting everyone together to work on this as a total system is hard. we're going to have to learn to cooperate more with each other and to change the payment systems 'cause right now payment, health care gets credit for how well it does instead of

how well the patient does. if we -- is the patient cured? is the patient healed? is the system responsive? we'd have a more efficient system. >> steve: as you go forward, you're optimistic that we can do something to get rid of some of this waste going forward because health care system we got right now was invented years ago and kind of came together in bits and pieces and now we've got a great big machine that doesn't work very well. >> yeah. the good news is i think everybody kind of knows that now, but the bad news is we're going to have to work together better than we do now. this constant combat and contention, it isn't helping. we really need to come together as a country and decide to have the health care system we really want and need and that, to me, is something that involves a whole new level of cooperation and ambition. yes, i am apt mystic, i know it's possible. we can see places that make breakthroughs. >> steve: you would think that if you could do it cheaply, you can do it better. we thank you for your service and good luck to you on whatever you do and thank you for joining

us. >> thanks for having me. >> steve: we just talked to him, up next, hear why darius rucker has five number one country hits. first let's check in with bill hemmer for a preview of his program at t top of the hour. >> he's living in low country, i do believe in south carolina. good morning. speaker boehner set to vote on a republican idea to create jobs. watch that story at the house today. mitt says newt is the front runner. larry sabato and who can win the south. no one is talking about that yet. bob and andrea do battle in our debate segment this morning and the first commercial company to take america to the space station is all geared up. and so are we. mar this and i will see you in about ten minutes on "america's newsroom." ugh, my sinus congestion,

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>> brian: darius rucker's third single from his hit album. "i've got a whole lot of nothing." you're here to perform it? >> yes. >> brian: you said something unique about this band and hootie and the blowfish. what's the difference? >> the difference is this is my band. they have to listen to everything i say. >> steve: here we go, folks. he's got nothing. ♪ it's my third cup of coffee ♪ ♪ fifth time i said i'm sorry ♪ some peeking through the glass saying we've been up all night ♪ ♪ we both know where this is going ♪ ♪ it's been a long time coming

♪ but is it really over ♪ is this really good-bye ♪ maybe i should see something and maybe you'd change your mind ♪ ♪ maybe, baby, buy a little more time ♪ ♪ but i got nothing ♪ no magic words ♪ there is nothing to end this hurt ♪ ♪ i'm just blank ♪ staring into space ♪ praying please, please let me think of something ♪ ♪ 'cause i got nothing ♪ i watch you pack your things ♪ and look down at your ring ♪ slowly slip it off and then you lay it on our bed ♪

♪ maybe i should pick it up ♪ and get down on my knees ♪ tell you what you want to hear ♪ ♪ and give you what you need ♪ 'cause i got nothing ♪ no magic words ♪ i'm just blank ♪ and staring into space ♪ praying, please, please let me think of something ♪ ♪ 'cause i got nothing ♪ you're almost at the door ♪ when you stop and turn around ♪ ♪ your eyes are begging me ♪ please say something right now ♪ ♪ but i got nothing

♪ no magic words ♪ to stop your leaving ♪ i can't get this turn ♪ i'm just blank ♪ and i'm staring into space ♪ praying, please, please let her think of something ♪ ♪ 'cause if you go ♪ i got nothing [ applauseyf ] some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪

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stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reactioto it. if you develop these, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart orlood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. my inspiration for quitting were my sons. they were my little cheering squad. [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you. >> gretchen: that was great, wasn't it? darius rucker. >> brian: fantastic. somebody else great, chris adultery. didn't win "american idol," but probably the most successful artist ever to emerge. >> gretchen: he didn't win? >> brian: he came in fourth. he was one of those controversial emss. i'm still not over it. >> steve: he has sold a lot of albums. doing very